According to Japanese media, Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been confirmed to participate in the WBC, while Roki Sasaki will not take part after his team declined to release him.
According to Japanese media, Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been confirmed to participate in the WBC, while Roki Sasaki will not take part after his team declined to release him.
23 comments
be careful with his arm, it’s golden
Poor Roki, how will he handle this news 🙁
Because Yamamoto did not suffer any injuries this season, the team has no grounds to block his participation. According to team officials, “Sasaki had an injury history this season, and the club therefore has the right to prevent him from taking part in the WBC.”
Sucks, but makes sense
Damn so much for the Dodgers giving their players WBC carte blanche
That’s interesting. I sort of expected the opposite. Getting Roki more starts to see how his new mechanics are working in a multi-inning role seems desirable, and obviously Yamamoto pitched a helluva lot more than he did last season.
That being said, Yamamoto doesn’t really have a history of being injury prone (as far as I’m aware, 2024 is sort of it) and is obviously much more of a finished product than Sasaki. The Dodgers may want to control the environment he pitches in more strongly.
Also… would Sasaki even make the Japanese rotation on merit right now? Last year was pretty rough in a starter’s role.
Roki had injury issues throughout the year affecting his fastball velocity. He got his velocity back in time for the playoffs but it steadily declined from series to series.
Makes sense but I’ll have to wait longer to see Roki pitch now
Dodgers ruined the MLB. Now they are ruining the WBC.
This stinks. Let Roki pitch.
Damn. I get it but I wanted Roki to get a chance to shove and quiet his detractors in Japan.
But only as a hitter
Free Roki
It feels so silly that teams are so concerned about injury over a tournament that will be no more than nine games when teams play 162 games plus playoffs every year.
The odds of pitchers getting hurt because of the tournament have to be incredibly low.
Even though I fully understand why they’re blocking Roki, it’s kinda lame
Better tradeoff. Im usually way against teams not letting players be in the WBC but Roki definitely looked a tad shaky this last season, especially as a starter.
Cause sasaki still needs some tweaks to be an effective starter. He cant throw a slider now. He needs a third and fourth pitch that wont disrupt his mechanics
Teams are so weird about this. It’s representing your country, let these guys go out there and play. Imagine if we never got the Shohei vs Trout matchup
I don’t want players from teams I cheer for to play.
People tend forget, Ohtani got hurt the year he played last month of the season.
It’s just more high stress playing for an exhibition game.
Lots of players don’t end up playing. Tanaka didn’t ever play. No one cared.
With Garrett Crochet not playing, not really a “the best players in the world” series.
No biggie if anyone or their team decides not to let them play.
Why would the dodgers hold out Roki but let Yoshi pitch? They should just let them all play instead of risk causing friction, they knew when they signed these guys they planned to play for Japan in the WBC
Eh, that’s pro sports. A lot of players have “no flying general aviation airplanes”, “no motorcycles” type riders on their contracts for the same reason. In this case team discretion is based on MLB policy but it’s not really materially different.
I thought the Dodgers said Roki could pitch, wtf